HiPathetically
by The Blunt Child
Summary: Natsuki is a homophobe. Shizuru is not. AU middle school. The two have a fiery debate about it, but who will be the victor?


Disclaimer: Shizuru has nice breasts. And Mai Hime is not mine.

To the victor go the spoils, but are they worth it?

None of the mystical, magical HiME carnival background. AU through and through. I guess they'll be in their last year of _middle_ school, because Shizuru is unaware of her sexuality.

-.- Hi-Pathetically -.-

Natsuki wanted to run sometime this weekend, but she had forgotten her tennis shoes in the gym locker room. As Shizuru was her walking companion and self-proclaimed "dearest and most loyal friend," the fair-haired girl had agreed to accompany Natsuki on this detour before returning to their respective homes. Besides, they'd probably be spending the evening together with the rest of their friends.

Speak of the devil. Natsuki walked into the locker room as Shizuru had gently opened and held the door for her. The blunette made the turn around the corner to her row of lockers but suddenly stopped, gawked, and turned back the other way. She stumbled into a confused Shizuru and deftly pushed her out of the locker room, gasping for air. Natsuki had not taken one gulp of oxygen after witnessing that scene.

"Natsuki, what's gotten into you?" Shizuru held her breast, a little winded from the push earlier.

Natsuki's face was a startling shade of crimon, a lovely contrast to her iridescent, jet blue hair. Shizuru would have normally teased her dear friend, but she was a little more interested in the motivation behind the blush. "I-I-I saw Yu—H…was anyone else in the student council room when you left?"

Shizuru didn't appreciate the change in subject, but she knew she always had to budge a little when she wanted something from Natsuki. "No, I don't believe so. Reito-san had been the only one with me today, and he left half an hour ago…Ara, what does that have to do wi—?"

"Kissing! No, MAKING OUT!" Natsuki yelped, dragging Shizuru away from the locker room vicinity. Shizuru went along obediently, curiosity quirked further by this bit of information. She only had to bait Natsuki a little more…

"Ara, but doesn't Natsuki still need her tennis shoes?" It was a borderline sincere statement from Shizuru, as she was still allowing herself to be pulled by Natsuki in the opposite direction of the locker room. Maybe she just liked Natsuki being so aggressive.

"I'll just go swimming!" Natsuki supplied.

Ara. Shizuru wasn't going complain with that. She didn't quite know why, but she had always liked seeing the changes in Natsuki's body over time. They didn't call Natsuki the girl with "perfect proportions" without reason. Surely, it was akin to observing a great piece of sculpture art. "Natsuki, what happened in there?" Shizuru brought the conversation back to focus. Did Natsuki find some students necking in the locker room? Teachers? Did they even belong to the school? Shizuru lifted her brow at this, a sense of duty from being student council president overtaking her.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Natsuki looked darkly at Shizuru, as if the knowledge she possessed pained her. And sadly, it did.

"You know I'm not fond of gossip," Shizuru solemnly uttered.

"Neither am I, but this is too sick to keep to myself," Natsuki bit out.

Shizuru recoiled a little at this comment from Natsuki, as it seemed to contain some unbridled, intangible hate. It was uncommon for Natsuki to truly _hate_ something, though she could write encyclopedias of _dislikes_. Shizuru made room for Natsuki to continue, also keeping her silence to let the blunette know she was still set on hearing the rest of this.

"I saw. I saw…Yukino…" Natsuki began.

Yukino was kissing a guy? No, Yukino was far too reserved and prudent to kiss some random male student, Shizuru jumped to a theory and shot it down.

" …Haruka…" Natsuki continued.

Now Haruka might have had the boldness to initiate some random, middle school tryst, but Shizuru couldn't imagine _anyone_ that Haruka didn't attack without premise. Males were especially governed with military justice by the blonde.

"…kissing." Natsuki finished pathetically.

Wait, there were no other names stated in Natsuki's account, so did Natsuki mean that somehow shy Yukino, abrasive Haruka, and kissing were related? Kissing Haruka Yukino. Kissing Yukino Haruka. Yukino Kissing Haruka. For some reason, that didn't work. But. Haruka Kissing Yukino. Did. Holy mother. Haruka and Yukino were kissing. Making out. Shizuru's executive director and secretary were making out in the locker room. The _girls_ locker room nonetheless.

"Oh," was all Shizuru could let out. They walked out into the glaring sun of the late afternoon, ready to take a heated debate stroll home.

"Is that all you can say, Shizuru?" Natsuki exclaimed. "I thought you were queen of morals and etiquette and what's right…" There it was again. That unfettered hate with no source.

"Ara, how am I not?" Shizuru looked on at Natsuki perplexedly. The title wasn't given mockingly, and Shizuru wasn't fazed by such a grandiose thing in the least.

"Be-because you're not even reacting!" Natsuki shouted and even hopped in a cute, pouty way. She stared wide-eyed at Shizuru, wanting desperately for the fair-haired girl to agree with her. She didn't know why it was so important herself. She couldn't help it. It was uncomfortable. "I never cared much for them from the beginning, but now I'm definitely not hanging out with them!"

"…Why are _you_ reacting like this?" Shizuru asked calmly.

"Oh! Of course you'll just forgive it more readily, because you have to work with them half the time in student council! But you can't just tolerate so-som-something so _wrong_, so…disgusting." Natsuki shivered in the hot afternoon, holding herself.

Shizuru waited until it was appropriate to speak again, "Ah. You find Haruka and Yukino kissing as…wrong." It hurt. Shizuru couldn't place it, but it hurt. Like the hate directed at Haruka and Yukino was radioactive. Because hate was never contained. It affected the victims, friends, and all those involved. Somehow, Shizuru felt like she was receiving the brunt of it. As fate would have it, she would be commissioned with defending something she didn't fully understand yet. She was a mature young girl though. She would understand enough that it was not just her own, but humanity's burden.

"Well, I don't mean to be offensive to Natsuki, but I don't find it wrong. If it makes them happy…" Such simple, peaceful words. But if the world couldn't understand such a concept, how could a 14-year old Natsuki?

"Oh, if it makes them happy?" Natsuki threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly. "Rapists and murderers take and kill for fun, but does that make them right?"

"Ara, I think it's hardly fair to equate assaulting someone to same-sex relations. They're consenting individuals, right? They're not taking someone's life," Shizuru sighed into the air, wishing she had some tea to soothe the coldness in her chest.

"But they _are_," Natsuki slammed a fist into her other hand. She was convinced with herself. "They're going against creating life. They both are meant to have children, but they're spitting on that by…making out!"

"Natsuki wants children?" Shizuru perked back into the fray.

"Hell no!" Another of Natsuki's reactions.

"!" Shizuru took hold of Natsuki's hands in a facetiously sentimental gesture, "It's okay. No matter what people say, I don't believe Natsuki is a murderer." Natsuki threw Shizuru's treacherous hands away with a growl. Shizuru chuckled delicately into her hand, "It's not as if most people are homosexual, Nastuki-chan." Natsuki bristled at the endearment. "The majority of people have more heterosexual tendencies, so life won't disappear. Think of homosexuals as the population control, varietal spice, the adopter of abandoned children."

"Varietal spice? Where do you come up with this crap, Shizuru? Your other excuses are junk, because straight people can control with single life, war, natural disasters, and they can adopt. How about this?" Natsuki crossed her arms, displaying a cocky grin. She had something good. "All orifices were not created equal."

Had Natsuki been reading through Shizuru's philosophy tomes? What kind of line was that? Talk about "crap."

"As in, ahem," Natsuki cleared her throat, "It doesn't make sense for a dude's thing to go into another dude's bum. It's not natural. Shit comes out of there!" Natsuki waved her arms around in the air emphatically. "And what can Yukino and Haruka possibly do? Plenty of orifices, but no filling."

"You bring up strong points," Shizuru eyed Natsuki wearily, perhaps a little out of respect too for the blunette's argument. The president exhaled long, pondering if she was fighting a lost cause. But… "I guess what puzzles me is that if homosexuality is so wrong and unnatural, wouldn't it have become extinct? If homosexuals couldn't bear children, then that gene would lose dominance over time and evolution, notwithstanding the survival of heterosexuality. If that were true, then it would be entirely environmental for homosexuals to exist. So…society has encouraged or promoted a minority of homosexuals for a reason…a reason I don't know, I'm sorry. But I don't think that reason is wrong," Shizuru whispered out to the wind. She was clinging onto something evasive to her. There was definitely a reason, but Shizuru hadn't arrived there yet.

"…Fine, agree to disagree, kay?" Natsuki pulled some mayo-flavored pretzels from her bag, sticking one in her mouth like a cigarette. She enthusiastically sucked on the tip. She didn't want to carry this subject further.

"So will Natsuki be civil to Haruka and Yukino tonight?" Shizuru said with an admonishing tone.

Natsuki heard it. "Hmph, I stand by my words. I don't want anything to do with something so vile." Natsuki chomped down on the pretzel in her mouth, the outer end dropping ominously to the floor. She was viciously stubborn.

"It seems we can't agree fundamentally on the matter," for now, Shizuru thought to herself. "—but I like it when things are more personal anyway. Ara, let's consider this hypothetically."

"Hm?" Natsuki munched roughly on her snack, skeptical of her dear friend's games. The conversation was entering very dangerous territory. For the both of them. Uncharted. They were amateur pioneers.

"What if…" Shizuru began, "I were gay?"

"Shizuru, are you GAY?" Natsuki dropped her bag of pretzels to the floor, a good citizen behind them cleaning it up as the teenagers never missed a beat in their walk home. On the surface the pair appeared calm, but their hearts and stomachs twisted in conflict.

"What if." Shizuru carried on in a nonchalant tone. "Would you ignore me like Haruka and Yukino?"

"Uhhh…just so we're clear, you're not right?" Natsuki kept pushing this, but Shizuru shooed it away with smooth flicks of her wrist and a shake of her head. "Fine, gosh! Look Shizuru, I'm closer to you than anyone I know. You're my best friend, so of course I wouldn't ignore…you."

Shizuru wanted to do a graceful happy dance right then and there, but she had a double-blinded mission to accomplish.

"I'd do everything in my power to change you. I'd find help for you, and eventually you'd be okay," Natsuki smiled reassuringly at Shizuru. Even though the blunette might have brainwashed herself with the sentiment, Shizuru did not find this very warm. It was pretty much, "Hey, I love you. But there's something seriously wrong with you, so I'm going to alter you to my liking."

"Ara, I think I'd deny your service." Natsuki's face fell. She had assumed she said something pleasing. She could really be dense sometimes. "What if…it became my calling, my living, to fight for that civil liberty until it became an inherent right? A lot of people would be against me. They _too_ would think I was…disgusting. Would you still hold to your belief?"

Images of hordes of people attacking Shizuru sprung up in Natsuki's mind. Attacking Shizuru with words alone would drive Natsuki to violence, so she grew furious at the thought of Shizuru losing to a hateful crowd. Hateful? Wait, Natsuki meant to think righteous…right? Was Natsuki being hateful?

"Look…Shizuru," Natsuki said the name so softly, it made Shizuru blush, "—hypothetically, I wouldn't understand why you were putting yourself in such danger for a cause I _still_ wouldn't believe in. But as your best friend, I won't see you as disgusting or vile. But still wrong."

"Ara, how bittersweet," Shizuru said with all the bitter and none of the sweet.

"Well in the wrong or right," Natsuki was getting really worked up too, voice primal, nails digging cuts in her palms, "I'd always stand by you! Even if you murdered a building of innocent people in some crazy rampage, I would _defend you_ _with my life_!"

The words echoed down the pavement streets. Warmth overtook the whole of Shizuru's body as she braced herself with a step backward. Her heart was working more vigorously than ever, but she still found it hard to breathe. Should she drop it now? Hadn't she already come out with more than she wanted? What did Shizuru want from all of this? To be right? To be a good person? To be noticed…to be loved? Natsuki's declaration was perfectly romantic in the archaic sense of the word—idealistic and utterly platonic.

Shizuru reached for Natsuki's hand, stroking the backside before being brave enough to entwine their fingers togehter. "Thank you, Na-tsu-ki," Shizuru moved in to embrace her dear friend tightly. "…I believe I would do the same for you…in a heartbeat." The two shared their close moment without movement, interruption, or thought for a strong minute. Shizuru regretfully pulled away, "There is one last scenario, if you don't mind."

"…Okay, Shizuru, _one_ more, because I think any more will scar us," Natsuki said grumpily with no ammo, because she was still disarmed from the hug. They should do that more often. Natsuki grinned.

"Very well then. I wonder if you'd try to change me or still believe me wrong if…Hypothetically speaking, what if I was in love with you?"

-.-

I apologize if that felt like I was preaching to you. Take it as you want; I simply wanted to get that out of me. Why Shiznat? It just clicked to me. You know what _you_ should click? That 'Review' button. Appreciate it.


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